Jyoti Communication

Certain issues that are presented as government policy might not have been discussed or agreed at the cabinet table. That appears to be the case of a statement in the budget speech that government intends to import quarrying material from Dominica.

Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira told the House of Representatives on September 7 the government would be looking to Dominica as a supplier of aggregate as an alternative to importing from Canada.

She explained that importing material from Canada became necessary because domestic demand outstripped domestic supply.

The Sunday Guardian asked energy minister Conrad Enill about it, since quarrying falls within his portfolio. The paper said Enill said it was news to him.

And the Quarry Association of Trinidad and Tobago has challenged the assertion that local quarry operators cannot meet the demand and even suggested that Trinidad and Tobago did not import aggregate from Canada as claimed by the finance minister.

Association president, Ramdeo Dan Persad told the Guardian that since the last quarter of 2008, "supplies of locally-produced aggregate have been adequate to meet our domestic demand, such that no aggregate has been imported during his period."

In a full-page ad in the Guardian dated September 16, Persad stated that most local processing plants are operating well below capacity because of the current decline in the construction industry.

"It is to be noted our members have made significant capital investments, through our local banks, in modern processing plants and equipment, to facilitate increased local demand," the ad stated.

"In addition, the Tobago House of Assembly purchased and installed a new state-of-the-art hard rock crushing and screening plant and associated forward linkage infrastructure for the production of aggregate and concrete from its rich local geological resource base of volcanic rocks, called diorite, similar to or of better quality than are to be found in Dominica," it added.

Persad said the Dominica initiative is not necessary because local businesses can supply all the country's current needs.

"Simply stated, setting up another entity in our already saturated production environment will result in mountainous stockpiles of unused production, and hence jeopardise only the capital and human investment in this sector," Persad said.

According to Persad, local quarries employ 20,000 workers directly and more than 100,000 indirectly, through the supply of equipment and spares and associated plant, and investment in the industry is around $3.5 billion.

Last week, Diego Martin West MP Keith Rowley expressed shock over the news of importing from Dominica, pointing to a $100 million quarrying initiative by the Tobago House of Assembly.

The former cabinet minister told local media Sunway International of Malaysia was awarded an exclusive "take or pay" quarrying contract in Tobago. He explained that what it means is that even if the Government did not take material, it still had to pay for it.

Rowley suggested that the Dominica decision is tied to the government's quest for economic union with OECS countries like Dominica.